Landry's Caring Nature Touched Everyone He Met

February 13, 2000

``I have never been around a person who was so popular, said Gil Brandt, the Cowboys' personnel director throughout Landry's coaching tenure. ``Whether it was on a college campus or at an airport in Germany, people always wanted to know the same thing: `How is Coach Landry?'

Landry's tenure began with a winless 1960 season and ended with a 3-13 season in 1988. They were his two worst seasons in terms of wins and losses. In between, Landry led the team to an unprecedented 20 consecutive winning seasons from 1966 to 1985.

Known for years as ``the only coach the Cowboys have ever known,'' Landry actually signed to work for Dallas' expansion team in the National Football League before the franchise existed. Potential owners Clint Murchison Jr. and Bedford Wynne signed Landry, who had been a defensive assistant coach with the New York Giants, to a personal-services contract two days after Christmas in 1959. It wasn't until Jan.28, 1960, that the NFL welcomed Dallas into its ranks.

Landry was hired at the behest of general manager Tex Schramm, a former general manager of the Los Angeles Rams. ``While I was in New York, I got to be a New York Giants fan,'' Schramm said. ``I went to their games and was surprised by what I saw. Here was an assistant coach -- a defensive coach -- who was looked upon by his players as almost a god. They were the best defensive club in the league for several years, and Tom Landry was the reason. He had a different philosophy of defense, and it worked.''

Landry remained the Cowboys' coach until he was fired on Feb. 25, 1989, the day Jerry Jones bought the Cowboys from H.R. ``Bum'' Bright and anointed Jimmy Johnson the second head coach in franchise history.

``I don't recall his [Jones'] exact words, but he went on to say he'd bought the Cowboys and he was bringing in Jimmy Johnson to be his head coach,'' Landry said at the time. ``I don't remember anything he said after that. A jumble of feelings crowded my mind. Anger. Sadness. Frustration. Disappointment. Resignation.''

Landry's legendary coaching career ended with 270 victories, which placed him third on the NFL's all-time list behind only George Halas and Don Shula. He was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility, 11 months after the firing. He was inducted by Jones into the Cowboys' Ring of Honor at Texas Stadium in 1993.

It was as a Giants assistant coach that Landry began wearing his trademark fedoras. One reason was obvious. New York got cold during the football season, and he needed something to cover his bald head. The other shows how Landry's mind worked. Thinking ahead to a post-football life in the insurance business, he decided it would be best to look as businesslike as possible on the sideline. The idea was to impress possible future employers and people who might like to buy policies from him.

``A nice fedora seemed like the finishing touch in my working wardrobe,'' he said.

When hats went out of style in the 1960s, Landry stuck with his fedora. A deeply religious man who worked tirelessly for Christian causes when his Cowboys days were over, Landry told interviewers after his fifth and final Super Bowl appearance in 1979 that he believed his destiny always had been controlled by a power greater than the Cowboys' ability to win football games.

Said Schramm: ``Tom was a very unique individual in that he had two very strong feelings; one was for football and the other about Christianity. The manifestation of his great faith was his ability to coach one of the roughest sports on Earth and maintain his beliefs.''

Since 1989, Landry had devoted his time to speaking engagements and to appearances on behalf of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, evangelist Billy Graham and the Lisa Landry Childress Foundation.

Lisa Landry Childress, the younger daughter of Tom and Alicia Landry, died in May 1995 after a four-year battle with liver cancer. She was 37.